HJC News

Monday: An Excellent Series

First and foremost congrats to Jake88 on winning the 2017 Concept of the Year award! It was a tough decision for me, both concepts could have easily won almost any year, and going head to head made this one of the most competitive COTW votes in a while.

Hopefully you all enjoyed the Super Bowl, I watched it in bits and pieces. There hasn't really been a Super Bowl I've been dying to watching since 2012 (mainly because I want one year where it's not the Pats, Steelers or Broncos in the AFC) and despite me hating every team in the AFC North, the Ravens beating the team that kicked my favourite QB, Alex Smith, to the curb was nice. As a Chiefs fan I have no need to care about the outcome of a Super Bowl as they never get past the formidable Patriots or that stupid team from the AFC North I wish played in the AFL and folded but none the less, hope a good time was had!

Today I wanted to throw on the nostalgia goggles, and look at an amazing series posted on the blog 4 years ago, that's 2014, from Jordan R. To this day it still remains one of my favourite concept series I've reviewed on HJC and one that might provide inspiration to you, the writers of today! The series itself is a "what if", looking at what would have happened if the Winter Classic and Stadium Series games did not begin in 2008 & 2014 respective, but instead both began in 1984.

The series is very similar to a how we tend to look at these outdoor games today: fauxbacks for the Winter Classic, and more modern designs for the Stadium Series. Jordan is great in this series in that "modern" means modern for the year these were to be hypothetically worn, not modern by our standards. Thelogos themselves are made to be in the style of the times. Some particular favourites of mine are the 1984, 1991, and 1994. The gear on the goalie template being accurate right down to the helmets is a nice idea. We got a question on the podcast a couple weeks ago about how sometimes it can seem like templates can make or break a concept rating, and while these templates don't make or break anything, they show a lot of creative and effort was put in and adds a level of uniqueness not seen in most other concepts.

Overall, I post these concepts here, again, with the hope of inspiring new artists. Why did the series just stop at 1995? I'd love to see the series go from 1996-2007, the rest of the years that did not have outdoor games wit the exception of 2003/04. Get creative! One of the critiques I would have with this series is that some of the jerseys are almost direct throwbacks. That's something that, while is more likely to actually happen, in the concept world is something you can avoid and try to make a solid fauxback. The logos aren't overly professional, but there's clearly a lot of effort and care put into each of them. Take a chance! Try creating our own logo! Like concept making it will require lots of practice to get just right, but with that practice you will develop a new skill most artist don't have.

Voting for this week is quite simple, just the COTW vote from last week. Ryan's Blackhawks' concept and Jeff's Minnesota Vikings crossover concept were two of my favourites from last week, and make this week a particularly difficult week for me to choose one winner. None the less it must be done and you should do the same. Votes are due Friday at noon EST.

We also have week one of the season. Click on the tab on the side of the blog to see the concepts and vote in each matchup!